Former CNN anchor Don Lemon arrested. Feds call him an 'online agitator'

LOS ANGELES — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, according to an attorney statement posted on Lemon’s social media account Friday morning.

Three others, including another journalist, were also arrested on charges that they violated federal law during a protest earlier this month at a church in St. Paul, Minn., according to the Justice Department.

Lemon was taken into custody early Friday while covering the upcoming Grammy awards on Sunday, according to federal officials.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power to account,” said the statement from Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.

The arrests stem from a Jan. 18 protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn. where anti-ICE protesters burst into a church and disrupted the Sunday service. The church was targeted because an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field officer apparently serves as pastor.

Demonstrators pumped their fists in the air and chanted “ICE out!” as Lemon and other journalists documented the protest and interviewed parishioners in the pews. Some called out the name of Renee Good, the 37-year old mother who was fatally shot by federal immigration agents.

Lemon, 59, is being charged with Conspiracy to Deprive Rights and Violation of the FACE Act and interfering by force of someone’s First Amendment rights, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told The Times. James Blair, a deputy White House chief of staff, said in an X post Friday that Lemon had been indicted by a federal grand jury.

“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media. “More details soon.”

In a media statement, Lemon’s attorney rejected the assertion he did anything criminal.

“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” the statement read. “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”

After the protest, senior Trump administration officials attempted to charge eight people, including Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a church service.

But a federal magistrate judge in Minnesota approved charges against only three people, citing insufficient evidence that Lemon and others had conspired to deprive rights by interfering with someone’s religion freedom in a house of worship. Prominent local activists, such as Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, were arrested Jan. 22. Meanwhile, the Justice Department petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue arrest warrants for Lemon and four other people. The request was denied.

On Jan. 23, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Department of Justice would continue to try to prosecute anyone who targeted a house of worship, including Lemon, who she called “an online agitator.”

“If you protested and went into that church on the Sunday and you terrorized the parishioners, we are coming after you,” Bondi said. “I don’t care who you are. If you’re a failed CNN journalist, you have no right to do that in this country. We don’t live in a third world country.”

As agents were at her door Friday morning, independent journalist Georgia Fort posted a video on Facebook calling the case against her a violation of her Constitutional rights. She said federal agents arrived at her home at 6:30 a.m. and informed her that they had secured a grand jury indictment. Her attorney advised her to surrender herself.

Fort said she had documented a protest at Cities Church as a journalist.

“I don’t feel I have my First Amendment right as a member of the press,” she said in the video. “It is hard to understand how we have a Constitution, Constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.”

Lemon has argued he entered the church as a journalist, not a protester, and is protected by the Constitution: “So, this is what the First Amendment is about.”

In a statement early Friday morning, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass referred to Lemon as “an internationally known and renowned journalist and friend.” Bass said Lemon was in custody in L.A. for “simply for doing his job and following a protest into a church in Minneapolis while reporting the story.”

“Let me be very clear – President Trump is not deescalating anything after the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents,” the mayor’s statement said. “In fact, the arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort demonstrates quite the opposite – he is escalating.”

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—Times Staff Writers Joseph Serna, James Queally and Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.